Nn Man Needs Help Raising $75,000

Fund Will Only Cover Up-front Cost Of Cancer Procedure

NEWPORT NEWS — David Shoemaker likes to be in charge of his life, but now he needs friends and neighbors to help him through a life-threatening illness.

The 34-year-old car salesman faces $200,000 in medical bills for a stem cell transplant to fight a recurring cancer. He also needs new kidneys but the cancer is priority.

Shoemaker quit his job at a local car dealership in Hampton on Feb. 13 so he can work full-time to raise at least $75,000 in up-front money for a stem cell transplant. He needs to have the procedure done within the next three to six months at the University of Arkansas Medical Center in Little Rock, Ark. His medical insurance won't cover the procedure because it's still considered to be experimental.

In a stem cell transplant, the patient's own peripheral blood is ``harvested'' or withdrawn, leaving only the white blood cells. The harvested blood is reinfused once the patient has been treated with high dosages of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, says Charles Hess, Shoemaker's oncologist/hematologist at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville.

``The Arkansas medical facility is considered the best for the stem cell procedure and that is why David will go there. His situation will be tougher because his kidneys have failed, but I expect the transplant and related procedures will be completed in three to four weeks,'' says Hess.

Shoemaker has been on a list for donated kidneys for more than a year, but a match has not been found. ``We'll now have to put off the kidney operation until after the stem cell transplant,'' Hess says.

Shoemaker and his wife, Tracy, were married in March 1991. Six months later, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer that originates in the bone marrow. The disease, which is a malignancy of plasma cells, also created a condition that produced proteins that were deposited in his kidneys, causing them to fail, says Hess. He goes through kidney dialysis three days a week and hopes to eventually find a kidney donor; none of his family members qualify.

Shoemaker underwent chemotherapy for the bone marrow cancer at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville and the cancer went into remission in September 1992.

``I was cancer free for 15 months, then it came back again. I can't take much more chemotherapy because the radiation has an adverse effect on the stem cells,'' he says.

``I've never asked anybody for anything in my life, but I'm asking now. I'm in a pinch, and I need help.''

TO LEND A HAND...

* To donate to the David Shoemaker Transplant Fund, send a check to the First Virginia Bank, 397 Denbigh Blvd., Newport News, 23602.

* Shoemaker is also seeking volunteers to help with fund raisers. If interested, call 874-3293.